Former Manchester United player slams club for not keeping a lid on Paul Pogba/Jose Mourinho saga

Paul Parker has criticised Manchester United for failing to keep a lid on the saga surrounding the relationship of Paul Pogba and Jose Mourinho.

The former Red Devils defender has warned the club, ‘sometimes you can’t give the devil what he wants’, over the continued speculation over Pogba’s future at Old Trafford.

United have been unconvincing at the start of the new season. Mourinho’s men have struggled to hit top gear and have two wins from their first four games, suffering defeats to Brighton and Tottenham.

And their indifferent form has been compounded by the constant speculation over a reportedly toxic dressing room, with Mourinho apparently falling out with a number of players, but most notably French star Pogba.

Pogba’s future at Manchester United is uncertain

The World Cup winner is said to be unhappy at Old Trafford and keen to join Barcelona, and the player only fuelled gossip about his uncertain future by saying in a recent interview on international duty: “I’m playing at United at the moment, but who knows what will happen in the next few months.”

And Parker has not been happy about the amount of negative press engulfing his former club.

Speaking on Saturday’s Warm Up on talkSPORT, the ex-United defender said: “What’s coming out of Manchester United PR-wise is something you expect from a club five or six levels below – it’s not top-level PR.

“Sometimes you can’t give the devil what he wants and if that’s what he’s looking for, if he’s trying to dictate and control, you don’t give it.

“Footballers in today’s game are commodities and a group of them together speak louder than any one manager.

Parker suggests Jose Mourinho must be careful about sparking a dressing room revolt at Man United

“It wouldn’t have happened 20 years ago, because players were there just to play football and we knew where we stood.

“If we shouted too loud, we were lucky if we were only shouted down, but at the worst we’d lose our jobs.